Madeleine Albright snapped back at the news of President Donald Trump’s plan to shut some people out of America with a call for human solidarity.
The former secretary of state tweeted Wednesday that she is “ready to register as Muslim” herself, even as Trump prepares to single out travelers from Muslim-majority countries.
Albright, an immigrant who was born in Czechoslovakia in 1937 but left at the age of 2 after the Nazi occupation, also tweeted a picture of the Statue of Liberty with the famous words: “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
”America must remain open to people of all faiths & backgrounds,” she wrote below the image.
Albright’s tweets came in response to news of a draft executive order that would ban refugee admissions for up to four months. It would also temporarily halt visas for people from the Muslim-majority countries of Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. By issuing this order, Trump would make good on his campaign promise to ban immigration from countries “compromised by terrorism.”
Albright acknowledged on a Thursday press call, organized by refugee groups, that a registry of Muslims in the U.S. was not part of the proposed executive order. But, she said, “by targeting Muslim-majority countries, there is no question that this order is biased against Muslims, and when one faith is targeted, it puts us all at risk.”
In November 2015, Trump was asked by a reporter if he thought there should be a database that tracks Muslims in this country. Trump’s answer was indirect and focused mainly on building a wall along the Mexican border. When pressed again by the reporter, he said, “I would certainly implement that, absolutely.”
Trump later tweeted that he did not suggest a database, yet his post still raised eyebrows:
Shortly after Trump was elected, it was reported that his team was considering the possibility of reviving a registry of immigrants and visitors from “higher risk” countries. And Rex Tillerson, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, sidestepped the question of whether he would support a Muslim registry during his confirmation hearing:
Albright is not alone in her public proclamation that she would register as Muslim in protest.
Feminist icon Gloria Steinem, speaking at the Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21, said she would register as Muslim if such a policy were implemented. Actress Mayim Bialik has also tweeted she would register in solidarity:
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